Welcome to the Planet Waves Betty Dodson archive
Note from Eric: Thanks for visiting our Betty Dodson archive. It’s not quite complete. I’ve written so much about her and done so many presentations it will take a little while. I did find this mini-resource recently, which links to several other articles, including my article written for her 80th birthday 11 years ago.
We’re planning to enhance this page with Betty’s art and more videos, and eventually my interview with her from 2018. For now, you have enough to keep yourself busy for a while. If you would like to hear my radio tribute to Betty, it’s on the Planet Waves FM area; should still be close to the top. Thanks Joshua for pulling this area together the past few months.
Betty loved the idea for this resource when I told her about it a few weeks ago, and said “publish anything.” — efc
Eric’s Articles that Include Betty Dodson
Threefold Goddess in a Field of Grain | August 2013
http://members.planetwaves.net/threefold-goddess-in-a-field-of-grain/
El Sol is now in Virgo; it made its ingress to the sixth sign of the zodiac Thursday at 7:02 pm EDT. Virgo is the mutable earth sign (the only one). Mutability is a form of changeability; earth is a form of stability. We have some tension manifesting through that contrast.
Cue: Be One (or The Kuiper Belt Turns 20) | Aug. 31, 2012
Astrology is based on the premise that the shape of the solar system reflects the shape of consciousness. If that’s true, the edge of the solar system would represent a boundary or edge within the psyche, a place where familiar territory ends and the unfamiliar begins. Over the years, this boundary has moved gradually outward. For as far back as anyone was looking at the sky, the boundary was Saturn, the most distant visible planet. The edge moved outward with the first discovery of a planet — Uranus, in 1781, and with that discovery, the age of science and industry had officially begun.
Beyond the Shadow Feminine | March 16, 2012
http://members.planetwaves.net/beyond-the-shadow-feminine-1/
We’re now in the last days of the astrological year — the days approaching the Aries equinox. These are the last days of Pisces, the final sign of the zodiac. When the Sun’s position reaches the end of any mutable sign (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces) we’ve arrived at the end of a season, and one energy is dissolving into the next. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the ground is stirring to life. Beneath the ground, cellular activity is exploding as seeds crack open, thrust down roots and then reach for the Sun. Animals are coming out of their dens and the trees are getting ready to burst into bloom.
The Dauntless Moon | April 3, 2011
https://planetwaves.net/news/daily-astrology/the-dauntless-moon/
When I sat down to research the Aries Moon it seemed strange that initially, I couldn’t think of anyone born with this placement. I then searched my charts database and had a rather surprising experience as I scanned a long list of pioneers, innovators and highly original entertainers — people who you might expect, having such a fiery Moon in the first sign of the zodiac, to be authentic pioneers in their fields. They include Marlon Brando, Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Garcia, Anne Rice, Steve Jobs and (skipping back a few hundred years) Galileo. Among “the famous,” these are some of my favorite people i the world.
Happy 80th Birthday Betty Dodson | Aug. 24, 2009
www.planetwaves.net/news/daily-astrology/happy-80th-birthday-betty-dodson/
It was indeed Betty Dodson, the author of Sex for One, who gave women permission to possess, love and experience the clitoris. Betty sometimes goes by the name Clitty Ann and does a little puppet routine with her pussy. Imagine this with her friendly Midwestern accent. She has been teaching about sex for quite a while, and she does it every day. You might almost think she was…sent here.
Betty Dodson: High Priestess of Masturbation | Aug. 22, 2008
http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/resources/sample_aug22_08.html
ON SUNDAY, Betty Dodson begins her 80th year on the planet. The Kansas-bred sex educator and artist is one of the patron saints of Planet Waves, and in honor of her birthday I’m here to devote an astrology and cultural sexuality class to her chart. Please, put on something comfortable, get a cup of tea, and relax for a few minutes.
“Masturbation is a meditation on self-love. So many of us are afflicted with self-loathing, bad body images, shame about our body functions, and confusion about sex and pleasure, I recommend an intense love affair with yourself.”
— Betty Dodson
How to Be Your Own Lover
http://yogislut.com/how-to-be-your-own-lover.html
There’s an old saying about masturbation that everyone either does it or denies it. Yet for most people, there’s a definite charge around the idea of being caught. Since most of us barely feel confident being seen nude, I’d hazard a guess that the American population would be skewed in the direction of shame to outright horror at the notion of being exposed in this singularly private aspect of existence. And most people seem, for the most part, content to keep it that way, including lots who are supposedly open and free about sex.
For the Love of Money
http://yogislut.com/for-the-love-of-money.html
When Valentine Michael Smith, the hero of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land, returned from Mars late in the 20th century, fully human but raised without all the limitations and inner complications of an earthling, those who joined him on his quest discovered an abundance of love and money.
Coming to the Revolution
http://yogislut.com/coming-to-the-revolution.html
If you want a revolution, liberating sexual pleasure is the place to start. And if all you want out of life is to be authentic, open-minded, creative and loving, opening up your sexual life-force is the heart of the matter. How do you do this? If you really want to be free, start with self-love. Learn to give yourself deep and satisfying orgasms, release your guilt and shame, and then watch what happens. Guilt about sex is guilt about life. Guilt about your own sexuality and shame around your pleasure mean that you are struggling for life. Give up the struggle. Just come into yourself and be alive. In this article, I will give some suggestions for how you can practice doing this in some really fun ways.
Before the Beginning – Masturbation and the 12th House of Astrology
http://yogislut.com/its-not-about-sex-its-about-self-5.html
THE 12th HOUSE is usually considered the house of unconscious patterns: the things we do but don’t understand, our hidden psychological legacy, and deep influences that are missing from view or are unidentified. The 12th represents our relationship to things that are unknown, or which we think of as unknowable, for example, memories of what it was like to be a fetus. It’s often considered the most difficult house to understand, but in a way it holds the key to human psychology. It has distinct properties, and once you learn to look for them, they are easy to spot.
Pornography as the Mirror of Denial
www.planetwaves.net/feminism/pornography_mirror_denial.html
THE ORIGINAL pornographic images described prostitutes and what you could do with them. Their point was to get you interested, then you could do the real thing for a fee. In perfect market economy form, the advertisement has become the product. Pornography as we think of it is a media-based form of prostitution. You purchase the image of a person for your private sexual use, in lieu of the original.
Betty Dodson Articles from Other Publications
How is Betty Dodson, the Queen of Female Masturbation, Dying? Not Quietly. | Aug. 27, 2020
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-is-betty-dodson-the-queen-of-female-masturbation-dying-not-quietly
The queen of coming is going. At the end of July, Betty Dodson was admitted to a hospital following complications from failing organs. She is in the Riverside Premier Rehabilitation and Healing Center in Manhattan with around two to three weeks to live, according to her doctors. And yet she has chosen to die as she lived: outrageously.
You Are Your Safest Sex Partner. Betty Dodson Wants to Help | March 26, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/style/self-care/betty-dodson-masturbation.html
What does it take to make Gwyneth Paltrow blush? Not much more, it turns out, than some explicit coaching on how to tone her pelvic floor. Her instructor, Betty Dodson, the fine artist turned sex educator and evangelist for female self-stimulation, was preaching the benefits of the Kegel-like exercise that Ms. Dodson maintains can help trigger an orgasm.
The Pleasure is Ours | Jan. 8, 2020
https://dodsonandross.com/articles/pleasure-ours
I can’t describe how it feels to watch yourself display your vulva and orgasm on a theatre screen the night before its released on an international media platform like Netflix. It was surreal and amazing. I’ve never been more proud of Betty and me, our work, our Bodysex leaders or womankind. I love you all.
I Went to a Masturbation Class In Search of My Biggest Orgasm Yet | March 6, 2018
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a15893157/betty-dodson-masturbation-workshop-orgasms/
The thought of being totally naked and pleasuring myself in front of strangers made my heart race—in a good way. As someone who’s gone to sex parties and clothing-optional resorts, I could handle the semi-public nudity and masturbation. Sure, it sounded potentially uncomfortable, but it also sounded adventurous, erotic and—if the accounts were to be believed—life changing.
Sex-Positive Icon Betty Dodson Courts #MeToo-Era Controversy | Feb. 3, 2018
Betty Dodson’s office is in her bedroom. This seems appropriate. Metaphorically, it’s where she’s conducted her work her whole life—although she insists that literally, the living room gets that distinction. “It was nothing about the bed,” she says. “Nobody gets in my bed but me. It was all about the living room and having a group.” This goes for her “Bodysex” workshops, a mainstay of ‘70s feminist circles she revived in 2013, and the storied sex parties she held here, in the rent-controlled midtown Manhattan condo, she’s lived in for half a century.
Betty Dodson Will Teach You To Sex Correctly | Sept. 10, 2015
https://grapevine.is/mag/interview/2015/09/10/betty-dodson-will-teach-you-to-sex-correctly/
An Icelander, an Australian and a Yank walk into a bar. The Icelander (a few drinks ahead of the others, naturally) brags: “Sex is so great here. We start the earliest in the world, we have liberal attitudes, and LET’S GET DRUNK AND SHAG.” The Australian blushes and drinks a beer, as both are shushed by the American, silver-haired, 85 years old and sober. “Y’all know nothing. Gather round and learn from the Godmother of Masturbation.”
Masturbation: The Secret to a Long Life | May 5, 2014
Betty Dodson is back. The pensioner once dubbed the “godmother of masturbation” thanks to her 1973 bestseller, Sex for One, is relaunching her masturbation masterclasses in New York. Now 85, Dodson wants to help the post-Sex and the City, post-Girls generation of women that she believes are not nearly as liberated as they think they are. “Most of them haven’t even seen their genitals in a mirror. You show ’em and they go ‘eek!’ Or ‘ugh!'”
Articles by Betty Dodson
“Getting to Know Me” in Ms. Magazine
https://dodsonandross.com/articles/getting-know-me-ms-magazine
PDF of Original “Getting to Know Me” Feature in Ms. Magazine
Masturbation has been a continuous part of my sex life since the age of five. It got me through childhood, puberty, romantic love, marriage, and it will, happily, see me through old age. I am not typical in this respect. As I have learned, very few women masturbate regularly once they’re past childhood exploration, and a lot of women have no memory of even childhood masturbation.
Fucking Like a Feminist
http://www.planetwaves.net/feminism/fucking_like_feminist.html
Once self-sexuality enters the lexicon of human sexuality, we will move into a new phase of social harmony within ourselves, our relationships, our families and the global community.
THERE IS LITTLE DOUBT that feminism lost ground with the last two generations of young women. I believe one reason for this has been mainstream feminists’ focus on rape, incest, and violence against women and girls. It’s time to rescue sex from violence. We need to acknowledge sexuality as the life force that allows us to procreate and fuels our creative impulses through repeated experiences with pleasure.
Penetrating Your Vagina for the First Time | Sept. 3, 2018
https://dodsonandross.com/sexfeature/penetrating-your-vagina-first-time
You will need a few basic items. If at all possible set aside at least an hour in a warm room that’s completely private. Turn off the phone and put your cell phone in another room. Wash you hands and make sure you have smooth clean fingernails.
First Time Orgasm | Aug. 29, 2018
https://dodsonandross.com/sexfeature/first-time-orgasm
Most young girls will begin by using their hands and massage oil. A young woman who has a history of little or no masturbation and has reached her mid to late-20s and is looking for her first orgasm, a battery driven vibrator can be a good choice. There are many of these vibrators available.
Learn a New Orgasm: How to Upgrade Your Masturbation Technique | July 26, 2018
Over the years, one frequently asked question comes from women and a few men who are unable to incorporate their current method of masturbation into partnersex.
A Woman’s Erection Needs 20-30 Minutes of Adequate Clitoral Stimulation | Oct. 16, 2014
I fully understand that teaching is repetition. So again I repeat: the clitoral body is the primary source of orgasm whether it’s stimulated externally, internally, or both at the same time. I prefer both. Once a woman understands she can have both clitoral stimulation with vaginal penetration, it ends this discussion.
Awakening the Clitoris | Dec. 29, 2011
https://dodsonandross.com/blogs/betty-dodson/2011/12/awakening-clitoris
After hearing countless sex histories from girls and women over the past four decades, I believe sexual repression begins the moment a parent or caregiver punishes a child’s natural curiosity for touching their own sex organs.
Books by Betty Dodson
Liberating Masturbation: A Meditation on Self Love which became Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving
Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving
Sex By Design: The Betty Dodson Story
Learn to Orgasm in 4 Acts
Video by Betty Dodson
Betty Dodson: Her Life of Sex & Art – Part 1 by Betty Dodson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7lUgknyQC8
Interview with Betty Dodson and Tantra Studios Devoted to Her
Tantra Studio and the Story of My Early Relationship with Betty Dodson | June 17, 2018
https://planetwaves.fm/fathers-day-the-tree-and-the-apple/
In the third segment, I do the tantra thing, and talk about the value of experimentation, and how to embark on, and manage, your experiments. You can hear the story of my early relationship with Betty Dodson.
Tantra Studio Devoted to Betty Dodson on Planet Waves FM | March 28, 2017
https://planetwaves.fm/all-that-aries-and-those-aries-people/
To make the program even more interesting, Tantra Corner this week is devoted to Betty Dodson, who has lots of planets and her Moon in Aries. She’s a revolutionary of the 8th house (death, dowry) who explained to the world that masturbation is a legitimate form of sex. I tell the story of how I know Betty, and read her chart for the umpteenth time (I hold the world record!).
Betty’s Letter to NYS Division of Human Rights | June 23, 2018
http://bookofblue.com/betty-dodson-eric-coppolino.pdf
My name is Betty Dodson. I am the author of Sex for One, published in 1974, and of other books. I am considered a founder of sexpositive feminism. I have taught masturbation, self-sexuality and self-relating for more than 50 years, primarily to women.
Taking a Step Back: Document of a Fraudulent #MeToo Incident in Kingston, New York| Oct. 7, 2019
https://planetwaves.net/bad-moon-rising-wicked-game-eric-francis-coppolino/
Living Out Loud
What helped me greatly was that (at the suggestion of a teacher many years earlier) I had spent the past decades of my writing life documenting my sexuality before the public, my clients, my friends and my family. It was difficult for someone to hijack my identity and create a new, supposedly “typical toxic male” kind of story.
Wow thank you for this! I’m fairly new to the world of sexology, graduate of Sex Coach U in 2018, and I enjoyed the brief study we had in school with the Betty Dodson materials. But this – what a wonderful tribute! Lots to play with here! I’m loving Tantra Studio as well. Your perspective Eric is insightful, compassionate and spoken with care. Much appreciation here!